1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector with improved housings for being assembled conveniently.
2. Description of Related Art
An electrical connector, mounted on a PCB for electrically connecting with a plug, is typically described in Taiwan Patent No. M381187 which was issued on May 21, 2010. The electrical connector is a DisplayPort connector which is used to transmit high frequency digital audio/video signals between a computer and its display, or a computer and a home-theater system. The electrical connector includes an insulative housing, a number of contacts retained on the housing, and a metal shell covering the housing.
The housing includes a first rear housing, a second rear housing combined to the first rear housing along a thickness direction thereof, and a front housing assembled to the first and second rear housings along a front to back direction perpendicular to the thickness direction. The front housing has a base and a tongue projecting forwardly from the base along the front to back direction. The tongue is parallel to the first rear housing and the second rear housing. The base defines a pair of position holes at a rear end thereof. The first and second rear housings are positioned to each other by a number of projections and slots therebetween and fixed together by the metal shell. The second rear housing has a pair of posts forwardly extending from a front end surface thereof to engage with the position holes, and the metal shell fixes the front housing and rear housings together along the front to back direction. The contacts include a number of first contacts assembled to the first rear housing, and a number of second contacts assembled to the second rear housing. Each contact has a securing portion secured to the rear housings, a tail portion downwardly extending out of a bottom side of the rear housings to connect with the PCB, and a contact portion forwardly extending beyond a front end surface of the rear housings. The base of the front housing defines a number of passageways extending therethrough along the front to back direction, and the tongue defines a plurality of slots at two sides thereof corresponding to the passageways. The contact portions of the contacts are arranged in two rows and extend to the slots of the tongue through the passageways along the front to back direction when the front housing is assembled to the rear housings.
As described above, the front housing is positioned to the rear housing merely via the posts on the second rear housing, which is not firm enough, and the posts are easily destroyed when the front housing is swayed along a thickness direction thereof. Besides, the front housing, the first and second rear housings are simply positioned with each other, and not fixed together before the metal shell is assembled thereto, then the front housing and rear housings would be easily dispersed with each other, which is inconvenient to be assembled. In addition, the contact portions should penetrate through the passageways to expose to two sides of the tongue for electrically connecting with the plug in an assembling process of the front housing, then the contact portions would easily rub against the inner surfaces of the passageways to make the scrap adhere to the contact portions, which affect a high frequency of the electrical connector.
Hence, an improved electrical connector is desired to overcome the above problems.